Police: Useless, Not Harmless

by Will Grigg
Mar. 10, 2014

Anthony Vuona of Worcester, Massachusetts was beaten and robbed by two unidentified assailants during a home invasion. He called the police, who have failed to find the suspects or the stolen cash and jewelry. However, they did arrest Vuona after they found marijuana in his basement. Now the victim of a crime of violence is facing the prospect of a prison term for indulging in an act that didn’t injure anybody else.

This incident offers a microcosm of the hopelessly skewed priorities of what is called our criminal justice system. The only legitimate purpose of peace officers is to apprehend people suspect of crimes of violence or fraud. Government police agencies, by way of contrast, enforce laws that make criminals out of people whose actions inflict no harm on anybody else. Their primary mission is not to protect the property of individuals, but to act in the interest of a class that claims the supposed authority to regiment the lives of other people.

This is the main reason why the US prison system is the largest of any nation in history. Owing to the perverse incentives of the drug war, police are more eager to arrest a non-violent pot smoker than the violent offenders who beat and robbed him.